[Tango-L] Respect

[HBBOOGIE1@aol.com]

Stage Tango depicts dancers performing for an  audience. It can take place 
on a stage or not the point is it’s a  performance.
Social tango is a very personal intimate dance between two  people without 
any regard for an audience. 
Regardless of what figures you  dance if you are in any way showing off 
your skills on the social floor you are  putting on a performance and you have 
now become one of the many tango dancers  who show by you’re dancing you are 
clueless as to what social tango is all  about. 


In a message dated 10/8/2010 7:56:51 A.M. Pacific Daylight  Time, 
al at sgi.com writes:
On 06/10/2010 21:22, Huck Kennedy  wrote:
>        Well that *is* a  problem with the style--as you point out, stage
> tango is not appropriate  for a crowded dance floor.
>
But I simply disagree that stage tango is  a style, and that social
tango is another, and that these are "the only two  styles".

These are *settings*, not styles, or at least they should be.  If,
within your "style", you don't adapt to the setting, you're  obviously
not going to get great results (and you are going to be rude if  you
dance 'stage tango' on a crowded dance floor).

Stage tango by  definition isn't appropriate to a crowded
dance floor.

I understand  something very "different" when I mean style. The
style of embrace, the  frame, the way you solve the obvious
biomechanical conundrums together with  your partner, the walk,
the exact way in which your dance rhythm interacts  with strong
and weak beats and even melodic phrases, the way it  all
breathes, where the pauses are, how the leader invites
adornos or  doesn't, the exact timing, the selection of
patterns that are used to  assemble the dance,...

...you can keep all of that pretty much the same  in a social or stage
setting yet these can differentiate you from all the  other dancers.

Unless your "style" is so rigid it cannot adapt to one of  the
settings, of course; it is e.g. necessary to eschew some
dangerous  moves or to adapt their form to a social setting
(boleos don't *have* to mow  down other dancers), and you will
likely need to adapt some embraces to the  place at hand
(it's more than a bit rude to e.g. insist in dancing  at
arms'  length).


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